Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Paste disagrees with me about 1982

Yada yada yada. I'm looking at another "Best
Album's of the '80s" list in hopes of finding some publication/website
that will agree with me that 1982 is the best year ever for pop music.
To date, I've examined lists at Rolling Stone, Best Ever Albums, Dave's Music Database, Popjustice, Slant, and, most recently, Pitchfork. Today, I look at the list put together over at Paste, which lists only 80 albums as opposed to the customary 100. This was a close race, with only 37 points separating the top 5 spots. However, my beloved 1982 finished in the 9 spot. It is becoming increasingly clear that the recognition of the superiority of the music released in 1982 is an opinion only held by elite members of the pop music cognoscenti (present company included).

Using a simple formula (album #1
received 80 points, album #2 received 79 points, and so on through #80
receiving 1 point, 3240 total points available), here are the results:

1986 Number of albums: 9Points: 444

1989 Number of albums: 10Points: 442

1980 Number of albums: 12Points: 431

1984 Number of albums: 8Points: 423

1987 Number of albums: 13Points: 407

1988 Number of albums: 8Points: 267

1985 Number of albums: 7Points: 266

1983 Number of albums: 4Points: 234

1982 Number of albums: 5Points: 200

1981 Number of albums: 4Points: 126

The five albums selected for the list which were released in 1982 are:

3

Thriller

Michael Jackson

24

Shoot Out the Lights

Richard & Linda Thompson

42

Marshall Crenshaw

Marshall Crenshaw

59

Hex Induction Power

The Fall

77

The Blue Mask

Lou Reed

That's seven lists so far. I'm going to stop after ten album charts and switch to examining the singles charts.